United Nations S/2007/210

Security Council Distr.: General

16 April 2007

Original: English

Letter dated 16 April 2007 from the Permanent Representative of

South Africa to the United Nations addressed to the President of
the Security Council

I have the honour to write to transmit to you the proposal of the Frente
Polisario for a mutually acceptable political solution that provides for the self-
determination of the people of Western Sahara (see annex).
I should be grateful if you would have the present letter and its annex
circulated as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Dumisani S. Kumalo

Ambassador and Permanent Representative
of the Republic of South Africa

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S/2007/210

Annex to the letter dated 16 April 2007 from the Permanent

Representative of South Africa to the United Nations addressed
to the President of the Security Council
[Original: English and French]

Proposal of the Frente Polisario for a mutually acceptable political

solution that provides for the self-determination of the people of
Western Sahara

I. The Conflict of Western Sahara is a decolonisation question:

1. Included since 1965 on the list of the Non-Self-Governing territories of the
UN Decolonisation Committee, Western Sahara is a territory of which the
decolonisation process has been interrupted by the Moroccan invasion and
occupation of 1975 and which is based on the implementation of the General
Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) regarding the Declaration on the Granting of
Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
2. The UN General Assembly and the Security Council have identified this
conflict as a decolonisation conflict between the Kingdom of Morocco and the
Frente POLISARIO whose settlement passes by the exercise by the Saharawi people
of their right to self-determination.
3. Likewise, the International Court of Justice, at the request of the General
Assembly has clearly ruled, in a legal opinion dated 16 October 1975, that “the
materials and information presented to it do not establish any tie of territorial
sovereignty between the territory of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco
or the Mauritanian entity. Thus the Court has not found legal ties of such a nature as
might affect the application of General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) in the
decolonization of Western Sahara and, in particular, of the principle of self-
determination through the free and genuine expression of the will of the peoples of
the Territory”.
4. Furthermore, on 29 January 2002, at the request by the Security Council, the
UN Legal Counsel clearly established that Morocco was not the administering
power of the territory, that the Madrid Agreement of 1975 dividing the territory
between Morocco and Mauritania did not transfer any sovereignty to its signatories
and, finally, that the status of Western Sahara, as Non-Self-Governing Territory, had
not been affected by this agreement.

II. The solution of the conflict passes by the holding of a referendum on

self-determination:
5. The question of Western Sahara having been identified by the International
Community as a decolonisation question, the efforts aiming to settle it have
consequently and naturally been guided by the objective of offering the people of
this territory the opportunity to decide their future through a free and fair
referendum on self-determination.
6. The Settlement Plan approved by the two parties to the conflict, the Kingdom
of Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO, and by the Security Council in its
resolutions 658 (1990) and 690 (1991), complemented by the Houston Agreements

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negotiated and signed in September 1997 by the Kingdom of Morocco and the
Frente POLISARIO, under the auspices of James Baker III, Personal Envoy of the
UN Secretary-General, and endorsed by the Security Council as well as the Peace
Plan for Self-determination for the People of Western Sahara or Baker Plan
approved by the Security Council in its resolution 1495 (2003), all provide for the
holding of a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara.
All these efforts failed because of the reneging of the Kingdom of Morocco on its
international commitments.

III. Readiness of the Frente POLISARIO to negotiate with a view to holding the
referendum on self-determination and the granting of post-referendum
guarantees to Morocco and to Moroccan residents in Western Sahara:
7. The Frente POLISARIO that unilaterally declared a cease-fire which it has
ever since respected scrupulously, and that accepted and implemented in good faith
the Settlement Plan by virtue of which the United Nations Mission for the
Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) was deployed as well as the Houston
Agreements, and that has honoured all the commitments it has undertaken by
making concessions sometimes painful in order to offer to the Saharawi people the
opportunity to freely decide their destiny, reiterates solemnly its acceptance of
Baker Plan and declares its readiness to negotiate directly with the Kingdom of
Morocco, under the auspices of the United Nations, the modalities for implementing
it as well as those relating to the holding of a genuine referendum on self-
determination in Western Sahara in strict conformity with the spirit and letter of the
UN General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) and within the format envisaged in the
framework of Baker Plan, namely the choice between independence, integration into
the Kingdom of Morocco and self-governance.
8. The Frente POLISARIO is also committed to accepting the results of the
referendum whatever they are and to already negotiate with the Kingdom of
Morocco, under the auspices of the United Nations, the guarantees that it is prepared
to grant to the Moroccan population residing in Western Sahara for 10 years as well
as to the Kingdom of Morocco in the political, economic and security domains in
the event that the referendum on self-determination would lead to independence.
9. The guarantees to be negotiated by the two parties would consist in:
9.1: the mutual recognition of and respect for the sovereignty, independence and
territorial integrity of the two countries in accordance with the principle of the
intangibility of the borders inherited from the independence period;
9.2: the granting of guarantees concerning the status and the rights and obligations
of the Moroccan population in Western Sahara, including its participation in the
political, economic and social life of the territory of Western Sahara. In this respect,
the Saharawi State could grant the Saharawi nationality to any Moroccan citizen
legally established in the territory that would apply for it;
9.3: the agreement on equitable and mutually advantageous arrangements
permitting the development and the joint exploitation of the existing natural
resources or those that could be discovered during a determined period of time;
9.4: the setting up of formulas of partnership and economic cooperation in different
economic, commercial and financial sectors;

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9.5: the renunciation by the two parties, on a reciprocal basis, of any compensation
for the material destructions that have taken place since the beginning of the conflict
in Western Sahara;
9.6: the conclusion of security arrangements with the Kingdom of Morocco as well
as with the countries of the region that may be interested;
9.7: the commitment of the Saharawi State to work closely with the Kingdom of
Morocco as well as with the other countries of the region with a view to bringing to
conclusion the integration process of the Maghreb;
9.8: the readiness of the Saharawi State to participate with Morocco and the
countries of the region in the maintenance of peace, stability and security of the
whole region in the face of the different threats that could target it.
Likewise, the Saharawi State would positively consider any request from the United
Nations and the African Union to participate in peace-keeping operations.
10. The Frente POLISARIO is ready, under the auspices of the United Nations and
with the approval and the support of the Security Council, to enter in direct
negotiations with the Kingdom of Morocco on the basis of the aforementioned
parameters with a view to reaching a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political
solution that provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara in
conformity with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations mainly the General
Assembly resolution 1514 (XV), thus bringing about peace, stability and prosperity
for the whole region of the Maghreb.

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